1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the fields of telecommunications and computing. More particularly, the present invention relates to a protocol for voice-data integrated multi-access to FDD (frequency division duplex) or TDD (time division duplex) local- or wide-area networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
The emerging convergence of telecommunications and computing has brought about considerable significance to dynamic multiplexing of voice and data over both wireline and wireless multiaccess channels, such as used in cellular and hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) networks. Bandwidth efficiency is a key consideration for voice-data integration and has been addressed in many studies by applying packet switching to both voice and data portions of the traffic, shunning circuit switching altogether.
For conventional multiple access, speech packets generated during active speech periods contend for channel access in a manner similar to that used for data packets, for instance, on Ethernet LANs. Packet reservation multiple access (PRMA) and derivatives of PRMA, as well as D-TDMA, are the most familiar medium access control (MAC) protocol examples that operate on this basis. Nevertheless, speech packets may encounter excessive delays for conventional multiple access, thereby resulting in speech clipping.
As is well known, bandwidth efficiency is not the only issue that merits attention in packet transmission. Quality of service is another critical factor that must be taken into account to meet the requirements of the underlying applications. In this regard, speech transmission delay should be always upper-bounded to a certain threshold for a satisfactory reception.
What is needed is a technique for dynamically multiplexing voice and data over a multiaccess channel that provides a predetermined quality of service for voice transmission by providing a speech access delay that is always upper bounded to a predetermined threshold.